Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 2 of 2
Full-Text Articles in Religious Education
World Religion: Dynamics And Constraints, Douglas J. Davies
World Religion: Dynamics And Constraints, Douglas J. Davies
BYU Studies Quarterly
Mormonism as a world religion and Joseph Smith as its originating prophet furnish the subject of this paper. A brief theoretical reflection on approaching The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides both an opening context for the quantitatively focused debate on Mormonism’s potential for growth into world religion status and an introduction for a more extensive consideration of several factors of a more qualitative kind that may foster or inhibit that development. The paper then ponders the issue of identity in relation to Joseph Smith.
Testing Stark's Thesis: Is Mormonism The First New World Religion Since Islam?, Gerald R. Mcdermott
Testing Stark's Thesis: Is Mormonism The First New World Religion Since Islam?, Gerald R. Mcdermott
BYU Studies Quarterly
I n 1984, Rodney Stark startled the academic world with a claim that has kept sociologists and religion-watchers scratching their heads ever since. “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Mormons,” he predicted, “will soon achieve a worldwide following comparable to that of Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and the other dominant world faiths.”¹ Stark claimed that Mormonism has grown faster than any other new religion in American history. Between 1840 and 1980, it had averaged a growth rate of 44 percent per decade; in the four decades 1940 through 1980, growth zoomed to an astonishing 53 percent. If …